COLOMBO (Reuters) -- Sri Lanka's government has decided to formally annul a ceasefire agreement with the Tamil Tigers, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

The military and rebels have been fighting a new phase in a two-decade civil war since early last year, leaving a 2002 ceasefire agreement in tatters. But neither side had wanted to be regarded as being responsible for its formal collapse.
""The government had decided to withdraw from the ceasefire,"" Lakshman Hulugalle, director general of the Media Centre for National Security, told Reuters.
""Today, at a cabinet meeting, it was decided now the government will give notice to the other party, because there is clause that says we have to give 14 days' notice.""
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are fighting for an independent state in north and east Sri Lanka, were not immediately available for comment.
Sri Lanka's defense secretary, President Mahinda Rajapaksa's brother Gotabaya, called on Saturday for an end to the ceasefire pact. He said it had been violated so many times it had become a sham.
The Tigers have been outlawed as a terrorist group by a host of nations, including the United States, Britain and the European Union, after a series of attacks and assassinations.
Analysts say an official ban on the rebels by the Sri Lankan state would further polarize the foes. More than 5,000 people have been killed since early 2006, taking the death toll since the war erupted in 1983 to around 70,000.
A previous government lifted a ban on the Tigers in 2002, paving the way for direct peace talks.